Glasses-Mounted Sensory Substitution Device Translates Images into Sound From: Medical Design Technology - 10/27/2015 Caltech researchers have now discovered that intrinsic neural connections - called crossmodal mappings - can be used by assistive devices to help the blind detect their environment without requiring intense concentration or hundreds of hours of training. This new multisensory perspective on such aids (called sensory substitution devices) could make tasks that were previously attention-consuming much easier, allowing nonsighted people to acquire a new sensory functionality similar to vision. The vOICe device is made up of a small computer connected to a camera that is attached to darkened glasses, allowing it to "see" what a human eye would. A computer algorithm scans each camera image from left to right, and for every column of pixels, generates an associated sound with a frequency and volume that depends upon the vertical location and brightness of the pixels. A large number of bright pixels at the top of a column would translate into a loud, high-frequency sound, whereas a large number of lower dark pixels would be a quieter, lower-pitched sound. A blind person wearing this camera on a pair of glasses could then associate different sounds with features of their environment. Read the entire article at: http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/10/glasses-mounted-sensory-substitution-device-translates-images-sound Links: Seeing Sound (with video 1:43) at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/seeing-sound-48579 Shinsuke Shimojo https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/content/shinsuke-shin-shimojo